The 51 st edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) proved to be quite an emotional affair for Sutapa Sikdar who arrived for the screening of Paan Singh Tomar in Goa. The film featuring late Irrfan was played at the iconic film festival as they paid homage to the National Award winning movie of 2012. The Tigmanshu Dhulia directorial had Irrfan playing the titular role. The biographical was based on the life of a soldier in the Indian Army who won a gold medal at the Indian National Games, but was forced to become a rebel against the system.
Babil took to Instagram to share pictures and videos from the special screening, including a clip of a speech delivered by his mother on stage.
Sharing a picture of the two of them at the event, he wrote, “Beautiful catharsis at @iffigoa.” Separately, he captioned a picture of Irrfan, “Today, I need to share this as @iffigoa made it possible to watch and hear him on the big screen one more time, that to in Paan Singh Tomar. (This man exuded a younger energy than me in his late 40s even).”
In her speech, Sutapa said that the festival had offered her “closure”. “It was a very brave decision to step out of home and attend the festival. One needs closure to walk ahead and IFFI is a closure for me, it is like being there for what we have done 30 years ago as students. It feels nice to be here together to celebrate the person and IFFI couldn’t have chosen a better film because this film talks about a race and reaching the finishing line. Irrfan’s finish line came too soon, but we are proud of him,” she said.
